Late surge grants Jamestown win over DSU men
Dickinson State senior Jerry Shevlin looks for an open lane against Jamestown on Thursday, Feb. 1 at Scott Gymnasium. (Shelby Reardon / The Dickinson Press)Thursday night felt like a playoff game for the Dickinson State men's basketball team.
Fueled by a thundering student section, the Blue Hawks led for most of the game. The University of Jamestown players drove to the basket incessantly, tying the game at 54 with eight minutes remaining. While their relentless shooting created a divide, their defense pushed it wider. With 2:29 left in the closely contested conference matchup, Jamestown held a 71-65 lead.
Dickinson State tried to close the gap, but fell 78-71 on Thursday, Feb. 1 at Scott Gymnasium.
"That was awesome," Jamestown head coach Danny Neville said. "It was both teams playing hard. We made plays down the stretch and that's why we kind of capitalized at the end. I credit them. They're a tough team. That was awesome. That was a great atmosphere and great basketball."
The Blue Hawks built a lead, as great as eight points at one point, thanks to consecutive baskets from junior Austin Payne and senior Ryan Clark. After leading 25-17 with six minutes left in the opening half, the Jimmies scored seven straight, coming within one.
The Jimmies nearly shut down senior Marcus White, limiting him to just two points in the first half, but Payne took advantage of their shifted focus, netting nine points in the first half and finishing with 11 on the night.
Payne, who is coming off a broken hand, also earned a team-high three blocks.
"It was good to see AP back. He's finally healthy a little bit," Dickinson State head coach Josh Vaughan said. "He did some good things for us."
Aggression and tension built in the first half, and it all came spewing out in the second. A pair of technicals from DSU's Clark and Jamestown's Jack Talley marked the intensity in the stat book when the two exchanged words with less than six minutes remaining in the game.
Following the ruckus, White scored to make it 62-61 Jamestown, but that was as close as the Blue Hawks would get.
"They have a lot of shooters so our focus this week at practice was getting out to shooters and contesting and kind of staying and not helping as much so that opened up lanes for them to drive and they capitalized," Payne said.
White found a groove in the second half, scoring 14 and bringing his point total to 16 on the night. He also earned 15 rebounds, earning him a double-double. Clark scored 12 points and reigned in 11 rebounds, also recording a double-double.
On the other side of the court, sophomore Carter Keller had a record night. The 6-foot-2 guard netted 12 points off the bench, the most he's ever scored against a conference opponent. Coming into the game, Keller had 13 points over 10 conference games played.
"He had a big night, Leighton Sampson had a big night, our big guy and Kevin Oberweiser hit some big shots there at the end," Neville said.
Oberweiser put away 13 of his 15 points in the second half, continuously pulling cheers from the Jamestown fans, and boos from the Blue Hawk faithful.
"The energy was great," Payne said. "It was really great for our last home game for the crowd to be out there and support us like they did."
Jamestown 78, Dickinson State 71
J: Leighton Sampson 19, Kevin Oberweiser 15, Carter Keller 12.
DSU: Marcus White 16, Ryan Clark 12, Austin Payne 11, Jerry Shevlin 9, Terrell Butler 8, Konner Goettsche 8, Akeem Williams 4, Carter Gallo 3,
Halftime: J 29, DSU 34. Total fouls: J 17, DSU 21. Technical fouls: J Jack Talley, DSU Ryan Clark. 3-point goals: J 9-23 (Kevin Oberweiser 3-7), DSU 4-19 (Goettsche 2-4). Rebounds: J 36 (Sampson, Keller 6), DSU 49 (White 15). Assists: J 10 (Oberweiser 4), DSU 13 (White, Gallo 3). Steals: J 6 (Jon Purintun, Oberweiser 2), DSU 7 (Shevlin 3). Blocks: J 4 (Purintun 2), DSU 5 (Payne 3). Turnovers: J 11, DSU 14.